Sky Viper Video Streaming Drone Review

The Skyrocket Toys Sky Viper Video Streaming Drone Review took me a little while to get together because I had to pry the remote from my husband’s hands. who first had to pry it out of the kids hands, in order to test it. To say the Sky Viper Streaming Drone is cool would be an understatement. My husband is a drone and UAV enthusiast, flying as a hobby for years, so we’ve seen more than our fair share of drones. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular at this price point, around $99.9, which is pretty much entry level for a video streaming drone. So I was surprised time and time again as the Sky Viper Streaming Drone exceeded my expectations in almost every way.

This 13″ drone is completely assembled, so all you need to do to fly is charge the drone battery and insert 4 AAA’s into the controller. and follow the instructions to calibrate the drone before your first flight. The battery charges fairly quickly by USB, maybe about 30 minutes to get a full charge. Flight time on a full battery is about 10 -12 minutes, which doesn’t sound like a lot – but where drones are concerned this is definitely a long flight time for such an inexpensive drone that is recording and streaming video. To put it in perspective, other comparable drones we own will get as little as 5 – 9 minute flight time.

It’s extremely easy to fly – my husband was most impressed by this. The controls are intuitive and responsive. With three flight modes – beginner, intermediate and advanced – even kids (or adults!) new to flying should master this drone pretty quickly. Both beginner and intermediate modes can be used indoors, and advanced mode is for outdoor use. With a 200 foot range and ability to take 360 degree photo and video, you’ll definitely want to take this drone outside at some point! In this mode you need to remove all blade guards and the camera. The controls are more sensitive in this mode, making flight more challenging, which will appeal to kids as they become more proficient in flying. Advanced mode also boasts a stunt button, which allows you to perform stunts with just the touch of a single button.

The addition of safety guards for indoor flight are a huge bonus, especially for kids as indoors is the best place to learn. The Sky Viper Drone has a resilient polypropylene body designed to withstand almost any flight related impact also comes with four replacement blades and simple instructions for installing them should the blades become damaged in a crash. I have to say, after weeks of flying and a handful of crashes both indoors and out (and one that included the drone bouncing off of our back deck, through some bushes and a Weber grill and landing on the stone patio below), we’ve yet to break a propeller. We’ve been really impressed by how sturdy this drone is.

On to the video – first of all, getting 720p High-Def streaming video from an on board camera at this price is pretty great in itself. Video quality is surprisingly nice and smooth and easy to get going. It will use your wifi to stream video to the Sky Viper app on your smartphone. If you choose not to stream you can simply record the video and store it in the app for later. We had a lot of fun watching the video feed as we flew around the house surprising people, or taking the drone over the trees behind our house. The camera has a full 130 degree adjustable viewing angle, so you can get exactly the kind of shots you’re looking for.

There were only two things about the Sky Viper Drone that we had some issues with. The first being that the app is not very intuitive. We found it difficult to set up and use, however, we did find detailed instructions on the Sky Viper website and once we read them we were able to figure everything out and use the app without any issues. While it would be nice to see an app update that makes it a little more user friendly, so long as you take the time to go online and read the instructions you’ll be able to make the app work for you (we are testing the iOS version, there is also an android version).

I think the most disappointing thing about the drone is that our phones don’t fit into the smartphone holder. Both my husband and I have the iPhone 6s Plus and the phone is simply too large to be mounted on the remote. This make is a little difficult to watch streaming video, as you have to prop your phone up somewhere else while you hold the controller. All in all, this would not be a deal breaker for us though. With all the other features the Sky Viper Drone packs into a modest price it is still wholly worth the purchase. You can either prop your phone up somewhere else in view or record and watch the video later on. The holder does work with ipods and smaller phones so if you’re using one of those you’ll be good to go.

All in all, if you have a child (or adult) asking for a drone this year, The Sky Viper Streaming Drone is a huge value for the price. You’ll get a durable drone easy enough for a beginner, but fun enough to entertain an enthusiast as well, with high-def video recording and streaming, indoor/outdoor use and one touch stunts.